A week ago I posted about Scene v0.5.7 and the response was more than I expected, thanks. Just shipped v0.6.1 — update since launch — and wanted to share what changed.
Quick recap for new folks: Scene is a free, MIT, Apple-notarized native Swift menu bar app. It bundles window layout + apps to launch + apps to quit + Focus mode + auto-triggers into one-click Workspaces. 1.4 MB DMG, universal (Apple Silicon + Intel), macOS 14+.
Website: https://scene.hillmanchan.com
GitHub: https://github.com/ChiFungHillmanChan/macbook-resizer
What's new in v0.6.0 + v0.6.1
- Persistent Workspaces. Each Workspace can now be pinned to a specific Desktop (Space 1–9) with its own pinned apps. Activate it → Scene jumps to that Desktop, launches the pinned apps, and (optionally) hides or quits apps that belong to other Workspaces while this one is active. Four enforcement modes: off, arrange-only, hide-when-inactive, quit-when-inactive. Existing workspaces migrate cleanly.
- Free Mode. One click in the menu bar silently pauses everything automatic — layout hotkeys, workspace hotkeys, drag-to-swap, seam-resize, monitor/time/calendar triggers. Your saved layouts and workspaces stay intact; relaunch returns to normal. For the moments you're typing fast and don't want a stray ⌘⌃3 to nuke your window arrangement.
- Sanitized bug reports. Opt-in diagnostics log (2 MB cap, 7-day retention). The "Export for Bug Report" button produces a zip where workspace names, bundle IDs, monitor names, calendar keywords, and Focus shortcut names are all SHA-hashed with a per-install salt. I see hash IDs, never your actual "Work — Notion + Slack" workspace name. Salt regenerates on toggle-off → toggle-on for forward secrecy.
- Workspace editor UX. Save button is now properly dirty-state aware: "Unsaved changes" badge while editing, "Saved ✓" for 2s after commit. Fixes the silent no-op that bit a few people last week.
- Test count: 177 → 317.
Already there from before
- 11 built-in layouts + a canvas editor for custom ones (click a slot to split, drag seams, bind a hotkey)
- Drag-to-swap, companion seam drag
- In-app updater that preserves Accessibility permission across upgrades
Install
brew install --cask chifunghillmanchan/tap/scene
Or grab the DMG from the site. First launch asks for Accessibility permission.
Honest limitations
- macOS 14+ only
- Still one layout per multi-display setup (per-display is on the roadmap)
- Free Mode is in-memory only — relaunch resets it. By design, but worth knowing.
- No launch-at-login UI yet
- One developer. Expect rough edges. That's literally why the new sanitized diagnostics export exists.
If Scene saves you some window-wrangling, a star on the repo would mean a lot. And if it breaks — please hit Export Diagnostics and open an issue, that's the fastest path to a fix.